Looking for starting advice on Heller Victory

Thanks Michael for the link, good information there.  Thanks for the advice chuck.

 I am only at a stage of dry fitting the parts, nothing is remotely ready for installation.  The kit I have is an older issue and it feels quite brittle.  There is one crack through the lower gun deck at the aft of the ship.  I will fix that.  My Idea is to allow the lower decks some to float on there supports so that when the quarter deck is installed, the decks will be alligned with the masts.  Because of the way the deck support beams are installed, I am concerned that I will dislodge the supports as I install successive decks.  One Idea I am kicking arround is to install a length of wire from the outside of the hull to make a minature expansion joint with the deck beams.  Once the decks are in, cut, fill, sand and touch up the paint.

 I figure is I do it this way, I can allign the hull with the quarterdeck and the installation of the stern will be closer fitting.

Michael D. wrote:

MagiceSteve try this site...www.hms-victory-build.co.uk. This fine group of dedcated gentlemen have about 4 builds going on at different phases,  and are more than happy to answer any questions, and offer up solutions to the problems you speak of. Michael

That....Michael...Is one "Hot Link"!

Thank you....

Jeff 

Both the hull and the decks are large enough to be quite flexible.   I had the same warppage problem with 1/100 Soleil Royal.  But it proved easy to slightly deflect the deck to mate with the hull side support ledges, and slightly pinch in the hullsides to meet the edge of the deck.

The main problem you will likely have is not the mating between the hull side and the decks.   It is with the stern.   When the hull is warped, the stern piece would sit slightly off-perpendicular from the hull centerline.   This will cause a wedge shaped gap to form between the back edge of the decks and the stern piece.   I had to fill this in with evergreen plastic strips.

MagiceSteve try this site...www.hms-victory-build.co.uk. This fine group of dedcated gentlemen have about 4 builds going on at different phases,  and are more than happy to answer any questions, and offer up solutions to the problems you speak of.

Michael